The Heritage of Dress: Being Notes on the History and Evolution of ClothesWebb, Wilfred Mark
History
The Heritage of Dress: Being Notes on the History and Evolution of Clothes
Webb, Wilfred Mark
Clothing and dress; Clothing and dress -- History
Red and white paint was at the same time universally employed by women
of fashion, who, as Miss Helen Gordon[43] says, had perforce to keep
their lovers at a respectful distance, lest a kiss "snatched by a
forward one might transfer the complexion of the mistress to the
admirer." The untimely decease of more than one famous beauty was
attributed to the paint with which she besmeared her countenance, a
notable instance being the death of Lady Coventry, whose husband had
been wont to chase her round the dinner-table in his determined efforts
to remove the deleterious compound from her face with his serviette.
According to Walpole, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu used the cheapest white
paint obtainable, and left it so long on her skin that it had literally
to be scraped off. It may be inferred that these fine ladies rarely
washed; but "the age was careless in that respect, personal cleanliness
at a discount, and the essence pot consequently in great demand."
We spoke just now of fans, which can, perhaps, be considered an article
of dress as they are very often fastened to the person. There seems no
doubt but that at first fans did not close, and were made of feathers
like those still in use in the East from whence they are derived.
Probably in the beginning, leaves were used as fans, and palm-leaf fans
are still to be seen. Fans were in general use in the sixteenth century,
and the folding one appeared in the next.
Sometimes, as at the end of the eighteenth century, large green fans,
called sunshades, were used out of doors in the same way as a modern
parasol now is. There is another use of the fan still to be noted in
China, namely, for blowing up a fire, and from this we no doubt get the
expression of "fanning the flame."
Painting apparently was not only practised by women, for male courtiers
at the end of the sixteenth century occasionally coloured their faces.
If we are to believe some of the writers in the newspapers of to-day,
men of leisure are not a whit better nor less foolish now.
Of masks as an ordinary everyday addition to costume we have no
survivals, except in connection with some balls and an occasional
burglary; but masks such as we see on the 5th of November will remind
us, like the face of the clown, of primitive face-painting, and also of
the many curious head-dresses and masks which savages wear at certain
ceremonies and dances. It is easy to produce grotesque effects by means
of masks, and the discomfort that would arise from the paint is thereby
avoided.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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